The writing process

Anne Thompson: So this is the question I always enjoy.I love to know how you write, literally, physically.Aaron, is it a legal pad like Tarantino in some isolated place. Is it a computer?I mean how do you construct a screenplay literally?Aaron Sorkin: It used to be when I moved to New York after college, I had a whole bunch ofsurvival jobs, and one of them was bartending in Broadway theaters.So I wrote most of--my first play was A Few Good Men--and I wrote most of iton cocktail napkins during the first act of La Cage Aux Folles.

Anne: How do you do it now?Aaron: I miss those days, which is why I told that story.There is a long while that doesn't look like writing.To a casual observer, it would look a lot like lying on my couch andwatching ESPN. (laughter)I also drive around. I listen to music.

The most important thing for me is getting started.The difference between being on page two and page nothing is life and death.So I am looking for a way to get started, and once I do do that, then I writeat a computer, either--I have an office at Warner Brothers and I have anoffice at home, so I am in one of those two places. And I need to know what I amgoing to write before I write anything.

I need to--I have got index cards on the board, and I try to write.Once I am loaded up, once I know what I am doing, I write with as much speedas I can. I feel like that speed and energy will translate itself onto the page.When it's coming in little dribs and drabs, I know to stop because I don't know what I am doing.So I don't stop, stop trying to find a way around in the dark. But, speaking offinding a way around in the dark, I don't know everything about what I am goingto write when I am writing.

It's a little like walking forward in the dark with a flashlight.You can only see as far ahead as the beam will go.When I know how it's going to end-- and in this case, once I'd come up with howit was starting, I knew how it was going to end--that's a big victory for me, and I feel good about it. But I think all youwanted to know was how I write, and I do it at my desk at a computer.(laughter and applause)Anne: Scott?Scott Silver: Yeah. I wished I had as good a story about the cocktail napkins.

I write at my desk, at my computer.It's like a job.It's like going to the office.And I think having that discipline and setting a schedule is tough for a writer,because if not, everyone's like, "You are not doing anything.""You are sitting around" mostly watching ESPN, or they say, "Can you come help memove a couch," or something. I am like, "I am writing."So it's sort of, I try to--so I have set hours now that sort of over the yearssort of I try to get at the desk at a certain time, and I think the same way forme. I think you even knowing where you are going--I don't know how I am going to get there always--but I think in the same way as sort of what Michael said,I think if you know where you are going and you have that sense, I mean that'ssort of where you have to begin.

But for me, I am sort of a very slow writer.So I sort of--and will procrastinate, so I think I just sort of get as muchresearch, sort of do as much *&^$#% as I can, until it gets to a point where itjust becomes ridiculous.It looks like you haven't started writing yet?You are kidding.So I think sort of getting all of that stuff and sort of like gettingeverything that you sort of need, that's sort of when I'll sort of start--start the process.Anne: David?David Seidler: I write in bed, at least the first couple of hours. I am very lucky.I have an apartment with a bit of an ocean view, and I have the bed facing it.

So I get up, I make myself coffee, and I sit there with my laptop like KingCanute ordering the waves in and out, and they obey me, and that gives me asense of entitlement and power, you see.For me, the longest process on any project is the beginning, the researchand doing a treatment.I worked for years with a partner. Now I don't, but I still keep the sametechnique of doing a very detailed treatment, so I know exactly where Iam going.

Early on, when I did Tucker and was working with Francis, we had aconversation once that has held me in good stead.He was explaining how the first thing that he did on any project was know a big sceneat the end, the penultimate scene as it were, and everything was then aimed towardsthat, and that's been a really good, helpful hint, and I've always use that.So I make 3x5 cards. If I have a large home, which I don't anymore, with acorkboard, I put it all on there.

Now, I put it on the living room carpet, and I can't open the windows for twoweeks because if the wind blows, my structure is absolutely shot.In terms of the actual working day, as I say, I will start the first hour or so inbed, if I can get away with it, which I usually can.I am sure that eBay was invented for my benefit, too, so I could dosomething other than write.I will work from say 9:00 or 9:30 until about 2:30-3:00, when I hit thatmetabolic low that most people have. And when I find my forehead is resting onthe Spacebar, I know that I have done it for the day.

I will do some exercise, go for a 90- minute walk, go for a run. That may bethe day. But if I am under pressure for a deadline or heading down the homestretch andhave build up a real head of steam, I will then start again, maybe when the sunis just going down the yard, I work another whole stretch. I can do a doubleday that way. And that's the way I do it.Anne: Charlie?Charlie Mitchell: Yeah, a lot of things get done besides writing when you are writing.

Lisa Cholodenko: But you are still writing. Charlie: Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's all right.I think for me, how I am writing depends on what's happening in the story.I can't sort of enforce some sort of pattern on that.I will tell you something that happened just the other day.My character was about to do something that was going to really impact her lifein a big way, and I could see it coming, and I couldn't do it.

I just could not do it.I couldn't sit down.I couldn't make myself sit down to do it.I just couldn't do it; I couldn't do it to her.She couldn't see it coming.You know what I am saying? She couldn't see it coming and I could, and I just got the glimpse beforeI got up from the desk of what was about to happen.I didn't know what was going to happen till that moment, and then I saw that,and I couldn't sit down for two days.And finally, I got my courage up to go back.So a lot of my process is determined by what's happening inside the story.

Anne: How do you all deal with writer's block?I mean what are your techniques for getting around it?Michael Arndt: I will jump in.I think one of the reasons you get writer's block is because you are trying tofind the perfect answer right off the bat; you are trying to hit the bull's eyeright off the bat. And that you just stop dead in your tracks, and just what youcan do is say, okay, there is like I am just going to make a list of ideas.I don't care if they are good, bad, or indifferent.I am just going to list everything.Here's an example, which was how to get out of the scene when the cop pulls themover in Little Miss Sunshine. It ended up being grandpa's magazines basically,But I didn't really have an ending of that scene, and you just go, okay, wellwhat's there in the--what do they have at their disposal, or it's the clawrescuing them at the dump.

You go, okay, well what's the-- their needs to be a life-or-deathjeopardy situation.They need to get rescued at the last second.What do we have?And instead of trying to find the perfect answer, you just list everythingthat's at a dump, just every possible thing you can think of, and then you try.You can start doing things in the right chronology or just picking which one is best.But I think that if you are blocked, I think just start making lists.I mean, that's like step one for me is just make a list.Anne: Lisa, your method, and whatever you want to say.Lisa: God! This is-- well, I could have a whole seminar just on this.

I would say I employ many of these techniques.This script was a really interesting learning curve for me.Two huge things that came out of it were, carding, because you can see yourwhole film in front of your face and see what's redundant and see what'snot--has no causality, and really look structurally at where you're going.And it's just something for some reason, I don't know, I think I got badadvice at graduate school.I had this teacher that was really, like, you have got to go with your sort ofinstinct and blurts, and just like let it ride.

It's going to come out of you. And it was very freeform, but there is somethingincredibly anxiety producing about just hoping that having no sort of roadmapand hoping it will just emerge as a complete idea and/or screenplay.Anyway, so carding. I found like that structured stuff is really helpful, and Ialso agree that in the one screenplay that I wrote early on where I kind of knewwhere the story was going and where it ended and what that ultimate scene was--I actually had a final scene--I found much more pleasure in the processI think than groping around in the dark for where things are headed.

Especially with something that's invented,I am sure there is more comfort when you have some basic facts that you canadhere to or something that came before it.The other thing I'd say, I could say a lot about writing with a partner andwhatnot, and the differences between men and women, because he thought I gabbedtoo much in between little bursts of writing.I found that's where some of our juiciest stuff came from. And I am like, I wantto process, and then we'd grab ideas that came up in these kind of randomconversations and throw them into the script.

I would say that Virginia Woolf was right. She wrote a little book long timeago called A Room of One's Own.I did not have my own officewhen I began The Kids Are All Right, and now there is just no way I couldever return to not having my own office.You just have to wall yourself off completely and have that space to imagine.Anne: I am afraid we have to stop.I am having a wonderful time, but we have lost track of the time unfortunately.We have a big panel, and let's give them a big round.

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Released

2/2/2011

As a sponsor of the 26th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, lynda.com is delighted to put you in the front row of four fascinating panel discussions with some of Hollywood's top filmmakers, including a number of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, and Academy Award winners and nominees.

Moderated by Anne Thompson from indieWIRE, the It Starts with the Script panelists talk about the development of their films, their research before sitting down at the keyboard, the evolution of the script, and finally, getting it to the screen. What's clear is that there's no formula, no easy path, and no shortcuts. The writers candidly reveal the obstacles each overcame on the way to seeing their vision realized. The anecdotes range from stories of triumph over adversity to remarkable collaborative efforts to just plain luck. Panelists are Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), Scott Silver (The Fighter), David Seidler (The King's Speech), Charlie Mitchell (Get Low), Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) and Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3).